This is the Dane Cook quandary. Around his second album, Retaliation, he became so popular that the inevitable backlash began. He was touring huge arenas. Retaliation was a three-disc package that should have been a two-disc package. Some people mentioned that, and the die-hard Dane fans, flashing Cook's Su-Fi sign, wouldn't tolerate it on his chat boards. Just about everyone weighed in, from magazines to fans to other comics. And it got to the point where you couldn't defend Cook without being an apologist, and you couldn't criticize him without being a "hater." That's the environment that Cook is working in now, the water he had to tread thinking about his new special, last night's ISolated INcident. And there were already conflicting ideas surrounding the hype for the show. There were the constant commercials hyping how unbelievable the show is, setting an unfair standard from the very beginning. We were told this would be unlike anything we have seen from Cook, an innovative, groundbreaking special.
If we can step back from all of that for a moment, from the marketing and opinion-making of the past few years, what we have is a Dane Cook special where he's not yelling, he's not stomping around a stadium. He's talking about his parents' deaths, and how the backlash actually got to him. It's personal stuff, more than we've ever heard from him before.
There is a slightly different technical angle -- the special was shot with one camera in a continuous shot with some inset shots of audience members. But it still feels like a guy onstage in front of a live audience. And Cook hasn't abandoned his silly or scatological side, which is part of his comic DNA. But he is still stretching himself as a comedian here, and love him or hate him, he deserves credit for that. If you're a fan who stopped paying attention when the hype got a bit much, give ISolated INcident a shot.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-18-2009 @ 7:54PM
dn said...
Are we sure it wasn't Louis CK's parents that died?
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5-18-2009 @ 8:14PM
Kyle said...
Actually, Dane lost both of his parents in the past two years. Both of them lost a battle with cancer, his mom first, and then his father more recently.
5-18-2009 @ 8:43PM
Brent Schmidt said...
I don't think Kyle has heard how Dane steals jokes from other comedians. Or so I hear...
5-19-2009 @ 2:54AM
B said...
It's basically undeniable that Dane Cook steals jokes. I don't believe a person automatically plagiarizes if they have the same joke or two, it's just how things work. But Cook has lifted work so often, and it's been so similar, it's impossible to write it off as unintentional or just two comics coming up with the same idea.
5-18-2009 @ 9:10PM
BugKiller said...
Dane Cook is the King of Douche Bags. He is not only an unoriginal comedy thief on the scale of Carlos Mencia, he is annoying and is thoroughly unfunny.
Dane Cook is proof of the growing movement towards stupidity in this country (and world) that Mike Judge told us was coming in his prophetic film, "Idiocracy."
You know who likes Dan Cook and finds him funny? The unintelligent. The stupid. And the down-right dumb.
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5-18-2009 @ 9:12PM
Suntzu said...
Jeez so when do your stand up Cd's drop. It's easy to criticize but lets see you all get up there
5-18-2009 @ 9:13PM
Suntzu said...
You used three statements to say stupid a smarter person could have said it one
5-18-2009 @ 9:22PM
Twinkie Beyond said...
Let me guess. A Carlin fan? (Soak in the negative connotation I have laid out for being one.)
5-18-2009 @ 9:34PM
Pete said...
Wow, this 'Dan' Cook sounds awful. Is he related to Dane?
5-18-2009 @ 11:31PM
Snife said...
Well I have a 172 IQ so am hardly dumb and I really like Dane Cook.
Yeah his jokes maybe are not the funniest, sometimes they are not even jokes but his delivery is fantastic and I cannot help but laugh at him.
Because you do not find him funny does not mean that he is not funny or that everyone who likes him is an idiot.
If you don't like him then don't watch him or troll on boards about his shows.
5-19-2009 @ 5:45AM
010111 said...
"Jeez so when do your stand up Cd's drop. It's easy to criticize but lets see you all get up there"
NEWSFLASH! THIS JUST IN!
you can no longer be critical of anything you have not done yourself with equal levels of success. you can not be critical of any profession or any person aptitude in said profession until you yourself have done it!
thanks "Suntzu" for clearing that up for us all!
a shame no one on TV Squad will be able to review anything ever again... you know... unless they have also produced / acted in / written at least as many episodes of a TV show similar to what they are critiquing. same deal with all the movie reviewers out there... haven't made a movie of your own? you can't review movies! music reviews? have to have several platinum albums of your own or you have no business reviewing! don't like what the president is doing? too bad! there are but a few men alive allowed to say anything.
the fact is... Dane Cook is a wholly unfunny joke-stealing hack. it doesn't matter how many stand-up CDs i may or may not have released. that has no bearing on his skill level or the fact that he is a hack.
i watched one of his specials once to see what the big deal was... since i am a stand-up aficionado. i literally laughed zero times. and got a small smirk about a *single* thing... that i realized later wasn't even his material. then i shook my head and tried to figure it out... i still am at a loss to explain his popularity.
5-19-2009 @ 8:38AM
GL said...
Idiocracy is a lame movie. As unfunny and unoriginal as Dane Cook. The movie's actual purpose was to make fun of pompous douchebags.
5-18-2009 @ 9:38PM
Andrew said...
I started watching his special last night and turned it off when he told us we shouldn't joke around about rape and then goes a jokes around about.
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5-18-2009 @ 9:39PM
Andrew said...
Ugh, long day. Should say "and then goes and jokes around about rape."
5-20-2009 @ 8:47PM
Andy Bates said...
To be accurate, he said that people shouldn’t use the term “raped” so casually, then he joked about how ludicrous it is to compare being raped to, say, being shot in Halo 3. No contradiction there.
5-19-2009 @ 2:20AM
YouFaceTheTick said...
Like the attraction of sitcoms with fat comics married to hot chicks, I guess Dane has his place. Backward hat wearing frat boys need a comedian too.
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5-19-2009 @ 11:05AM
Willmore2000 said...
Dane Cook isn't a bad person.
Sure, he steals material, has an annoying stage presence and I hear he's gay (which is the worst thing you can say about a person). However, you have to give him credit for being an incredible self-promoter. He built his fan base from the ground up, and that takes a lot of work. Good for him.
Now, if you want good comedy instead, go find clips of Dylan Moran, Gervais, Bill Hicks, Pryor, Izzard, Steven Wright, or a dozen other hilarious people.
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5-19-2009 @ 2:34PM
StillBash said...
I'm irritated by this post. It wants to make me think about something. That's highly unusual for content on TV Squad these days.
Please make it stop. I want pre-chewed tiny bits of information that I can digest as if the information wasn't actually worth anything.
Oh wait, now I see it. It's about Dane Cook, the lightweight of Comedians... maybe it DOES fit...
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5-22-2009 @ 11:17PM
carrie said...
i love dane cook! get a preview of his new cd at http://bit.ly/H5hbF. it's funny as anything.
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5-23-2009 @ 8:40AM
Dave Pearl said...
I lost my parents on 2001 and 2007..>Being an adult orphan, single, little family is hardest thing I have ever been through....
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